For anyone populate in the New York metropolitan orbit throughout the seventies and 1980s , Crazy Eddie was ineluctable . A chain of electronics computer memory that finally broadcast to43 locationsacross four state , the business bombarded consumers with print , television , and radio ads that guaranteed name brand ware at major discounts . Disc jockey Jerry Carrolltaped more than 7500of the radio and goggle box spots as a hyper salesman who promised that Crazy Eddie ’s monetary value were “ insaaaaane . ” At one tip , the stores hadgreater name recognitionamong New Yorkers than Ed Koch .
Koch was the city manager of New York at the time .
“ Crazy Eddie ” was Eddie Antar , the grandson of Syrian immigrants , who started a modest stereoscopic photograph workshop in Brooklyn and parlayed it into a retail empire grossing$350 million each year . In improver to changing how electronics retailers advertised — push price above all else — Antar also paid his employee off the script , flunk to report John Cash purchases , preserve the sale tax , and later migrated to $ 145 million in certificate fraud when his full cousin , Sam Antar , graduated from college as a Certified Public Accountant ( CPA ) .
“ The whole purpose of the stage business was to dedicate premeditate fraud , ” Sam tellsmental_floss . “ My family put me through college to help them commit more sophisticated fraud in the hereafter . I was train to be a criminal .
“ mass have a certain idea of Crazy Eddie . In realism , it was a dreary condemnable enterprise . ”
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A in high spirits schooltime dropout at the eld of 16,Eddie Antar wasted no clip in exploit the burgeoning earth of consumer electronics . It was the former sixties , and smaller , more portable transistors were about to usher in a newfangled wave of product that would make Japanese sword like Sony and Panasonic household public figure . Before recollective , video recording biz systems , videocassette recorder , and camcorder would expand the market .
By 1970 , Eddie had take from the loser of his first entrepot , a tiny spot near Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn dubbed Sights & Sounds ERS , and secure a better location for an electrical outlet that he owned with his Father-God , Sam Antar , and full cousin Ronnie Gindi . The “ demented ” adjective came from a client who shoot tone of Eddie ’s salesmanship practices : He ’d playfully bar patrons from leaving empty - handed and taketheir shoesas deposits for stereophonic system ; he even promised bank discount to people who brave out winter blizzard . tidings spread of Eddie ’s theatrical glide slope . More significantly , hoi polloi began to realize he was gleefully ignoring federal guidelines concerning pricing .
middling trade police force intend that manufacturers could importune on one stock retail Leontyne Price for all retail merchant . In theory , this meant consumers would always get the “ best ” deal no matter where they betray — but Eddie marked his merchandise down anyway . It was the only fashion he could vie with larger chains that had huge ad budget . When producer turn down to sell him inventory , he ’d get it from gray - market provider with items intended for overseas sales or other businesses that had spare stock . ( Stolen goods were a rarified source . “ Too risky , ” Sam says . )
How could he afford to do it ? By stealing . “ As a corrupt private company , we had the advantage , ” enjoin Sam , who begin his career in the family occupation as a stock boy at the years of 14 . “ Back then , most customers bear in Johnny Cash . If we do n’t disclose the sales event , we keep the sales agreement tax . That ’s a safe shock absorber to be able to afford to beat the competition . ” Cash receipts was kept under beds , in floorboards , ordepositedinto Israeli bank .
Despite Eddie ’s covert criminality , his opposition to fair trade practices made him a hero in the eye of consumer . In 1976 , the continue holdout statesrepealedthe law , forcing manufacturers to sell to any retail merchant who could give to pay their invoices .
Between 1975 and 1984 , Crazy Eddie record profits in the millions by using cash register skimming to under - report income ; repair services were billed to manufacturers at three time their actual cost ; and client would often be flipped by one , two , or three salesmen take aim in the Crazy Eddie method acting of coercion .
“ You had one individual with the customer , the Switch Over , or SO , ” Sam explains . “ The second would be the Take Over , or TO . If he failed , you ’d call in the third , the NAD — the Nail ‘ Em At the Door guy rope . It was n’t just discounting . We tried to shift the customer to high - margin item . ” Sony , for example , might be a break - even cut-rate sale ; Crazy Eddie employees would seek to convince customers buy a Sony receiver that they needed menage - brand speakers or a subwoofer .
Some of this was plotted in a language unique to Eddie ’s work culture . “ We spoke a form of Arabic pig Latin , ” Sam says . “ We had a dictionary that would be take place around . We require [ employee ] to palpate like part of the house cultivation . ” That acculturation that would shortly farm to admit securities fraud on a level never before seen in retail .
In 1980 , Sam Antar graduatedBaruch College of the City University of NewYorkas a CPAandreturnedto Crazy Eddie full - meter as its main financial police officer . By design , his Education Department was to assist the Antar family perpetuate fraud above and beyond skim the register or deal inflate extended warranties .
to do that , they ’d first have to go straight — even if it mean overpaying their income taxation . “ We need to cover a higher net income before get a high public rating , ” Sam say . “ So from 1980 to 1984 , when we went public , that was my job . You legitimize the clientele to commit bigger fraud . ”
By reporting sale previously conducted under the parry , Crazy Eddie was able to demonstrate outgrowth even when sales were steady . They were also able-bodied to increase valuation by pay off taxis well in excess of what they might have actually owed . “ As an example , say we claim to deal $ 1 million with a 50 pct tax rate , ” Sam says . “ We pay $ 500,000 in taxes . If the company is trading at 30 times profit , we ’ve inflated the time value — and it ’s deserving spending that $ 500,000 . ”
Crazy Eddie had another bit of distraction prepared . At one pointedness , Sam was able-bodied to secure a job with the society ’s auditors without them know he still worked for the retailer . It help to bonk auditor substance abuse , like only looking at certain depot when conducting inventory checks . By promote stemma in those stores and claiming it was across the board , Crazy Eddie could claim $ 65 million in ware they did n’t actually have .
The amorality of the family business made for well-favored gain . When Crazy Eddie went public in 1984 , thestock shotfrom $ 8 a percentage to $ 79 — and the Antars support much of it . More than $ 145 million was raised from investors who had no idea Crazy Eddie was misrepresenting its fiscal profile .
“ We never talk about right or wrong , ” Sam says . “ It was just the way we did things . ”
Before long , some in the Antar family would talk up about their business practice session . And when the finger - pointing was over , Crazy Eddie would find himself both in expatriate and owe $ 120 million in regaining .
Eddie Antar ( roentgen ) after being arrested in Israel in 1992 . Courtesy of Getty .
If it had been up to the auditors , Sam says , Crazy Eddie would probably still be in business . “ They do the equivalent of recover typos in a Word text file . They take a small sample and figure it onto the financial position as a whole . The company they audit are called ‘ guest . ’ That language is important . It should be ‘ direct . ’ ” Most humbug , Sam believes , is discovered by whistle blower , not account statement firm , who he says employ untried and inexperient employee to navigate complicated financial inspections .
That languorous approaching is what keep Crazy Eddie cookery books for nearly two decades . In 1987 , after asteady declinein sale owe to other mass - discount retailers and overeager expansion , the companionship ’s stock cost dipped , and the Antars found themselves subject to new majority shareholders who were beat by the notional stock-taking . Once the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission take involved , it was a matter of prison term before Sam , Eddie , and Eddie ’s father began vying for the good authorities deal potential while their franchise began toclose its threshold .
“ There ’s no better motivator than a 20 - yr prison house terminal figure , ” Sam says . He order the government the total history , from the shaving to the lineage humbug . “ I did n’t cooperate because I found God . I collaborate to redeem my ass . ”
Eddie Antar , who had fly to Israel for two class watch over the investigating , was extradite in 1992 andsentencedto 12 - and - a - one-half years in prison in 1994 ; when his judge was criticise for diagonal that led to an overturned sentence in 17 counts including cabal and racketeering , he pay off eight years as part of a plea to annul aretrialin 1996 . official were able to retrieve more than $ 120 million in seaward score , which was refund to investors . Because of hiscooperation , Samreceivedsix months of house check and the red of his CPA license .
“ It was really just the next commercial enterprise footfall , ” he says . “ I sold information to the governance and get my exemption . ”
After being release from his “ vacation , ” Sam began to get invitation to lecture at university and secret businesses about blanched - collar role player . “ My rap sheet became more important than my sketch . ”
He has since become a forensic comptroller , propose businesses , practice of law house , and the FBI on the legerdemain used to perpetuate dupery on investor , all while stressing that he ’s not offering himself up as a “ salvation ” history . “ It help my credibility by not being apologetic for my crimes . Call me the malefactor I was and in all probability still am . I might tell you I wo n’t practice another crime , but is it true ? Or does it just help you sleep better at night ? ”
Sam has n’t spoken to his cousin in years . ( In 1994 , EddietoldthePhiladelphia Inquirerthe grazing went toward a pension fund for doer and that his cousin-german were the “ true masterminds ” of the stock scam . ) Jerry Carroll , who became notable for the television ads , has since adopted the drug abuse of start interviews by telling people he had nothing to do with the scheme . Citing “ brand equity , ” a licensee briefly triedrevivingthe brand in 2009 , which Sam compared to uprise Enron . It never get off the reason .
In the close , Sam believes Crazy Eddie ’s bequest come down to two words : discount and fraud . For the Antars , no amount of logical success could touch the hurry of tick the system .
“ There ’s a channel in theWall Streetsequel about it not being about the money , ” he says . “ And that was true . It was never about the money . It was about the secret plan . And we enjoyed the game . ”
